


Dropping Leaves

by Jingle



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Death, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Healing, Possibly One-Sided Relationship, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-12
Updated: 2013-05-12
Packaged: 2017-12-11 14:27:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/799740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jingle/pseuds/Jingle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Short brown hair and big green eyes; creativity and caring; a remarkable history and a heart that’s still healing. This is what Jack sees when he looks at Rapunzel."</p>
<p>Rapunzel tells Jack about Eugene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dropping Leaves

Short brown hair and big green eyes; creativity and caring; a remarkable history and a heart that’s still healing.

This is what Jack sees when he looks at Rapunzel. She brings the summer just as he brings winter; he feels foolish that he never met her until North took it upon himself to introduce them. That was many years ago, and now they are dear friends, but there is one problem.

Jack is in love with Rapunzel, and Rapunzel, no matter how often full of life and wonder, is in mourning.

“Maybe you should try talking about him,” Jack whispers on the first of autumn one year, when Rapunzel has finished her yearly work. They’ve settled together seated under a tree in forest deep within which Rapunzel once lived.

“I don’t know, Jack,” she sighs, and he takes her hand.

“It’ll be okay.”

Rapunzel knows, deep down, that she’ll feel better if she keeps his memory alive. So she blinks back the tears that are threatening to spill over, and begins. “His name was Eugene Fitzherbert, but when I met him, he was Flynn Rider. He climbed my tower the day before my eighteenth birthday…” Jack listens intently, all the way through the story. He feels jealousy when she speaks so fondly of him, but more strongly, he feels sympathy for his mourning friend. The ending of the story is heart-breaking. “He gave himself up to save me… _He_ should have been the one the Man in the Moon called on. But instead, it was me,” Rapunzel murmurs. She still wonders why. Why her and not Eugene? She doesn’t see the courage she had, just the fact that she couldn’t save him.

Jack gives her hand a squeeze. “Of course he chose you. You _are_ the summer; liveliness and joy.” Not in this moment, though. He wishes there was something he could say to help, but the one thing he most wants to say would be completely inappropriate.

“He’d want me to be doing this,” Rapunzel admits. “He really was a good man, even if he tried to hide it from me at first.”

“He sounds… One of a kind.” Jack manages a smile, and so does Rapunzel.

“He was. I’m sorry it was such a sad story I told you.”

“I asked to hear it.”

“I think… It has a happy ending, though.”

Jack looks over to Rapunzel with eyebrows raised in mild surprise. “Oh, yeah?”

“Well…” Rapunzel lets go of Jack’s hand and stretches her arms above her head and leans against the tree’s trunk. She can feel it preparing to drop its leaves, and it makes her a bit sad. The end of summer always does. But she knows it will keep the tree alive, just as she will drop her sorrows to keep herself alive. “I met a good friend; a silly boy with a big heart. And I’ll always remember Eugene. I’ll always cherish his memory… But I’ll heal. I’ll learn to celebrate him instead of mourning forever.”

“Do you think you’ll ever love anyone again?” Jack can’t help but asking, hoping the context makes it subtle. But then Rapunzel looks at him; eyes wide with startled understanding.

“Maybe.” She takes Jack’s hand again. “Maybe.”


End file.
